PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea – The U.S. and China should stop trying to push their own narratives and allow the Papua New Guinea Police to handle the case of an allegedly smuggled artillery shell found in a shipping container imported by a Chinese company, a senior communications expert from the Pacific country told Radio Free Asia.
Police last week confirmed that the shell seized on Oct. 29 was indeed a 130-millimeter round, contrary to the Chinese embassy’s claim on social media that it was merely a harmless wine bottle that was shaped like an artillery shell.
The U.S. Embassy disputed the claim on social media, saying that the U.S. military had “engaged” with the PNG Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit, who determined that it was a Chinese-manufactured artillery projectile.
PNG police detained four Chinese men in connection with the incident.
But letting the U.S. or China influence public opinion through their statements undermines the PNG police and the country’s sovereignty, Joseph Ealedona, a former media executive and former president of Port Moresby Soccer Association, told RFA.
“It is a police investigation and only the PNG police will release details,” he said. “We Papua New Guineans do not come to your country and announce matters under police investigation.”
He called for restraint from the embassies of both countries.
“The Chinese and U.S. Embassies must respect our sovereignty and refrain from making public statements,” he said. “The matter is under active police investigation. It must not be used for geopolitical interests. We are friends to U.S. and China so this must be respected.”
‘A 21st century arms race’
The “wine bottle” shell is part of a “superpower arms race,” former diplomat Dominic Sengi wrote in a commentary published in local newspaper The National.
“PNG and the Pacific has become an increasingly important arena of strategic competition where superpowers come courting and subscribing nations in their spheres,” he wrote.
The smaller Pacific Islands, he said, have welcomed both because they feel like they stand to gain something when the larger powers compete.
“Come one, come all, invest in our country. Build our roads, finance our ports, train our police, support our defense forces. Establish diplomatic missions, bring your development programs – friends to all, enemies to none,” he wrote, describing what he called a “pragmatic, almost laissez-faire” approach to international relations.
“Laissez-faire diplomacy however becomes problematic when welcoming everyone means allowing everyone to pursue their strategic interests without sufficient national scrutiny.”
He said that Beijing and Washington’s competing explanations over the incident are themselves “instruments of political engagement.”
“Both countries speak the language of friendship and mutual respect,” he wrote. “Yet PNG must ask whether these declarations are always identical to the interests of our peoples.”
Papua New Guinea’s closing of Taiwan’s trade office in Port Moresby this month was described as puzzling from a diplomatic standpoint, experts told RFA, but it signals a coming expansion of its economic relationship with China.
Edited by Eugene Whong.
